The Chutes

This long-gone amusement was at 10th and Fulton

The Chutes

"What was absolutely the coolest thing about those Chutes rides---and I wish an amusement park would build a Chutes ride the way they used to---there was no safety device on those old Shoot-the-Chutes and those boats would literally go flying. I mean, they'd bounce off the water and people would get thrown from them. They flipped over all the time!"
Warren Crandall, June 2002.

S.W. LaBounty's Streetwise column, Palaces of the Past, identified Fisher's as the Richmond District's first theater. However, motion pictures were shown in the Avenues before Fisher's opened its door on Clement Street in 1907.

The Chutes amusement park, doing business just off D Street (present-day Fulton Street) in 1904, trailblazed the area with some short reels, including one of the boxer Gentleman Jim Corbett working out:

San Francisco Chronicle
March 21, 1904:

THE CHUTES

Every AfternoonAnd Evening

GILLO'S ARTESTO,
MOVING PICTURES, Showing Britt and Young
Corbett Training, and a Great Show in the
Theater; VISIT CABARET DE LA MORT;
ANIMALS FROM ALL CLIMES IN THE
ZOO; GET LOST IN THE MYSTIC MIRROR
MAZE; TAKE A TRIP DOWN THE FLUME.
AMATEUR NIGHT THURSDAY.
Admission, 10c. Children, 5c.